You may be tempted to think that the chances of a serious medication mistake in a Louisville hospital are millions to one. Unfortunately, researchers have found that the real number is far smaller—even at accredited healthcare institutions.
In a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers studied medication errors across 36 institutions. Some of these were hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, some were non-accredited hospitals, and a few were skilled nursing facilities.
What they found should give patients cause for alarm:
- Medication errors are incredibly common. The data showed that in all facilities, nearly one out of every five doses contained some form of error. The error rate for potentially harmful mistakes was 7%—over 40 errors per day in a typical, 300-patient facility.
- Patients are often overdosed or under-dosed. Although 19% of the doses across all facilities were in error, some mistakes were more common than others. The most frequent errors were administering medication at the wrong time (43%), skipping doses (30%), giving the wrong dose (17%), and giving the wrong medication (4%).
- Nearly one out of every ten patients will suffer an adverse drug event. Seven percent of the errors had the potential to cause an adverse reaction in the patient, known as an adverse drug event (ADE). Of the ADEs detected in the study, researchers discovered that 56% of the events were due to prescribing errors, and 44% involved administrative mistakes.
If you suffered a medication mistake at Norton’s hospital in KY, you should know that there is help available. The experienced Louisville prescription drug attorneys at Gray and White can get you justice for your suffering and payment for your medical bills and time off work—and we charge nothing unless we win your case.
Call Gray and White today at (800) 634-8767, or fill out the contact form on the top of this page to set up your FREE, one-on-one case evaluation.